This invention relates to a discharge-type ignition device for an oil burner, and more particularly to a discharge-type ignition device for an oil burner which is adapted to carry out ignition of a wick of the oil burner by electric discharge.
Conventionally, a filament-type ignition device for an oil burner which is constructed so as to red-heat a filament by means of a dry cell acting as a power supply, to thereby permit the red-heated filament to ignite a wick of the oil burner is generally used for ignition of the oil burner.
Further, a discharge-type ignition device for an oil burner is also known in the art. The discharge-type ignition device is classified into a device using combustion heat generated from the oil burner as a heat source and a commercial AC 100 V power supply as a power supply for the ignition device and a device using a battery means such as a dry cell as the power supply.
The latter discharge-type ignition device using a battery as the power source for electric or spark discharge is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 35244/1988, although it unfortunately fails to be put into practice due to various disadvantages. The conventional discharge-type ignition device using a battery as disclosed includes discharge electrodes arranged so as to be spaced from each other with a combustion wick being interposedly positioned therebetween.
The present invention is directed to a discharge-type ignition device of the latter type which uses a battery as a power supply to carry out spark discharge between discharge electrodes, to thereby ignite a wick.
The conventional discharge-type ignition device using a dry cell as the power supply has a disadvantage that the dry cell fails to permit spark discharge sufficient for ignition of a wick of an oil burner to occur between discharge electrodes. Also, the conventional discharge-type ignition device using a dry cell causes a variation in height of the wick and deterioration of a surface of the wick due to settling of the wick, adhesion of tar to the wick or the like, and deformation of the wick with lapse of time, resulting in a variation in dimension between the wick and the discharge electrodes. This causes spark generated by discharge to be deviated from the wick, leading to a failure in ignition of wick and/or generation of white fume of fuel oil from the wick. This would be the reason why the conventional discharge-type ignition device using a dry cell fails to be put into practice.
Thus, an ignition device for an oil burner which is currently commercially available is limited to the above-described filament-type ignition device.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to develop a discharge-type ignition device using a battery such as a dry cell which eliminates the above-described disadvantage of the prior art, because it is essentially free of a disadvantage of a filament-type ignition device that a filament is readily exhausted, deformed and/or broken.